Reuters World News - Texas halts executions, Flydubai 'hero,' and AI Big Mac pricing (Updated)
Episode Date: October 1, 2026Tennessee halts all executions after a botched lethal injection. A passenger says he grabbed the controls of the nosediving flydubai flight after the co-pilot stabbed the pilot. Reuters goes inside th...e USS George Washington operating in the Strait of Hormuz. Iowa has the second-highest cancer rate in the US and voters are demanding action from midterm candidates. And how much your Big Mac costs depends on how AI prices it. Podcasts, breaking news, and video analysis from the source. Download the Reuters app here. Listen to the Morning Bid podcast here. Sign up for the Reuters Econ World newsletter here. Listen to the Reuters Econ World podcast here. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hi, I'm Kim Vinal in Wonganui, New Zealand.
And I'm Christopher Walgessper in Chicago. It's Thursday, October 1st, today.
Tennessee is halting all executions after a botched lethal injection.
A passenger describes how he pulled up a nose-diving plane after one pilot stabbed the other
on a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv.
Iowans ask mid-term candidates to address rising cancer rates.
And McDonald's defends algorithmic pricing,
meaning your Big Mac costs more depending on where you buy it.
This is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes.
Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive, the Price is Right Fortune Pick.
BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.
19 plus to wager.
Ontario only.
Please play responsibly.
If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,
please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge.
BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario.
Seven days a week.
More details are emerging from the Fly Dubai plane incident where the co-pilot,
stabbed his fellow pilot and tried to crash the plane.
That's according to Israeli officials.
Yanov Hayun, a passenger on board, spoke to the media.
His clothes stained with blood.
He says he heard screaming and ran to the cockpit,
where he helped pull the attacker out.
He says he then noticed no one was flying the plane.
So he grabbed the steering controls and pulled up, just like he'd seen in the movies.
Two other pilots who were on board took control and made an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia.
Many of the 174 people on board were Israeli, with the flight bound for Tel Aviv.
Most passengers have since taken flights home, and for Yaniv Hayon,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was waiting for him at the airport.
Still, in his blood-stained clothes, Hyenne apologises for his attire.
But Netanyahu calls him a hero and a lion.
Fly Dubai says the reasons for what happened aren't known
and warned against premature speculation.
The attacker, who is an Omani national, according to an Israeli official,
was arrested when the plane landed.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is halting all executions in the state through the end of the year,
that after the failed lethal injection of Krista Pike, which he's calling a tragedy.
Pike survived after two lethal injection attempts at a Nashville prison late Wednesday night.
Her condition is still unclear.
Governor Lee says there will be an investigation into the incident.
Pike's botched execution is the second this year in Tennessee,
and highlights the difficulties
U.S. States face in carrying out lethal injections.
She was sentenced to death in the 1990s
after a jury convicted her of a murder she carried out when she was 18.
Iowa will see some of the most competitive races
in the upcoming U.S. midterms.
And as candidates criss-crossed the state,
they're talking a lot about the issues you'd expect,
like the economy and inflation.
But there's another issue voters in Iowa keep bringing up.
Cancer.
Iowa has the second highest cancer rate in the U.S.
And reporter Leah Douglas says people are looking to candidates for answers.
A lot of Iowans are concerned that the rise in cancer is linked to nitrate pollution in their drinking water.
Nitrate runoff can happen from fertilizer that's applied to farmland.
and about 85% of Iowa is farmland, very farm-heavy state.
So there's concern in the state and has been for a long time
that rising nitrate levels in the drinking water
and in the state's waterways may be tied to the rising cancer rates.
I should say that there's no scientific consensus
that there is a link there,
but sort of regardless of that underlying science,
we've seen a lot of discussion about this
from candidates in both parties.
On the Democratic side, candidates are really using the opportunity to attack if they're running against a Republican incumbent or a Republican who's currently serving in Congress to attack them for their votes supporting Trump's 2025 tax and spending law, which made cuts to Medicaid and some rural health care programs because they're tying that to the amount of health care that people need and concerns about declining insurance coverage.
on the Republican side.
Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive.
The Price is Right Fortune Pick.
BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.
19 plus to wager.
Ontario only.
Please play responsibly.
If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,
please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor.
Free of charge.
BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario.
There's, you know, discussion of the money they've brought to the district for incumbents on cancer research and screening and what they pledge to do about bringing more research, more treatment options.
Sort of, you know, we are looking for cancer and we'll treat it when we find it.
One ignition and lift-off.
SpaceX has launched a four-person crew to the International Space Station.
The Falcon 9 rocket topped with an autonomously operated crew dragon capsule,
carried two American astronauts, a Canadian, and a Russian cosmonaut.
Luke, Josh, Sergei, welcome to orbit.
It's the 13th long-duration space station crew that NASA has sent via a SpaceX rocket
since the company began launching U.S. astronauts back in 2020.
The crew will conduct biomedical and health research,
including studies on how microgravity affects blood circulation and clotting.
NASA says it's committed to keeping the space station operational through 2030.
So for the time I'm here on the ship, this is my room right here.
Reuters journalist Ed Obe, aboard the USS George Washington,
one of two huge aircraft carriers the U.S. has stationed in and around the Strait of Formuz.
Ed spent days with the Navy in the war.
wake of damning reports about low morale and even suicide attempts on board a different
warship, the USS Abraham Lincoln. U.S. Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, said those reports
were misrepresented. President Trump dismissed concerns, and the Abraham Lincoln has since
returned to port. Ed's embed is now also a short documentary, taking you inside U.S. operations.
So this is what an aircraft carrier looks like when it's operating in an active on.
Up here is the flight deck of the US stores, Washington.
He speaks with everyone from The Cooks.
So we have about 5,000 people on board,
and our food inventory kind of usually runs anywhere from maybe about $4.5 million
up to about $6 million.
To the chaplain.
Huge percentage of the ship are between ages of 19 and 24 years old,
so they're trying to figure out being an adult while they're out here.
You can watch the full documentary on Reuters.com.
There's a link in the description.
To the war in Ukraine.
where Kyiv says Russia is launching its largest coordinated attack on energy infrastructure in months.
Overnight, strikes hit power facilities in and around the Ukrainian capital.
Seven people were killed across the country, including a child.
With winter approaching, officials fear these kinds of attacks could seriously impact heating and electricity.
Finally, if you are a fan of the Big Mac,
This one is for you.
Could I get a Big Mac, please?
Thank you.
And I'm sorry, it was how much?
717.
Thanks.
That's fast food reporter Waylon Cunningham,
visiting a McDonald's in New York.
Two miles up the road, he ordered the same thing.
But when he paid...
You said that was 805?
Okay.
That 11% difference is down to McDonald's new AI-guided pricing,
a plan aimed at boosting profits.
It generates the optimal.
price for each item largely based on what it thinks the customer is willing to pay.
Waylon has been analyzing McDonald's own documents to understand how the system works.
It analyzes millions of transactions every day. This AI pricing engine also shows the prices of
nearby competitors at Burger King and at Wendy's Chick-fil-A. McDonald's says this is a normal
part of business operations and that businesses have been doing this for a very long time,
trying to determine what the right price is. However, the advent of AI and the advancement of computer
technology has allowed businesses to supercharge these calculations. And in recent years,
we've seen a lot of consumer backlash against what's being called algorithmic pricing.
Now, we asked McDonald's, and they said that franchisees are always free to choose the price for
their restaurants. However, franchisees have told us that they come into a lot of pressure from
McDonald's to adopt the engine's output. Some say they get phone calls when they don't adopt
the prices. I've also seen documents that show that every deviation from the prices is recorded
in detail. And McDonald's has a lot of power over these franchisees. For more on any of the
stories from today, as well as more analysis and news shaping our world, check outwriters.com.
OrmGM casino and check out the newest exclusive.
The Price is Right Fortune Pick.
BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly.
19 plus to wager.
Ontario only.
Please play responsibly.
If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you,
please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor.
Free of charge.
BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario.
...or the Reuters app.
There's a link in the description.
to download it and start getting pure news straight from the source.
Don't forget to follow us on your favourite podcast player.
If you're listening on a smart speaker,
just ask for the latest news from Reuters seven days a week.
We'll be back tomorrow with our daily headline show.